How many patients are you "expected" to see in an 8 hour day?

[4eversail]

Just curious what your companies expectations are for number of visits and time spent in patients home? Do you complete charting at patients bedside or your own bedside and how many hours do you estimate you spend on charting away from bedside. Going on 15 years in Hospice and still struggle with charting even with computer. I know I am not alone in this. Patients first , right ?

[AtlantaRN, RN]

charting is expected at bedside, average visit is 45minutes to one hour. As for number of patients, it is expected that a nurse that has a nursing home facility with several patients, you would be expected to see 7 of those patients in one 8 hr shift----as they are in one location---with an average visit being 45 minutes and after speaking with their floor nurse and calling family with an update, seven patients should be doable easily (we do paper charting still)....

As for home care patients-that is a horse of a different color. If you have a 3-4 county area and the patients are several miles apart-4-5 may be on the average day, not including all the phone calls you receive from the office from families with alot of questions.....New patients take a greater amount of time secondary to all the teaching that is required with hospice philosophy and scope of practice and care plans. We have a policy that if we receive a call from a patient/family within the first 7 days of service this automatically prompts a visit, even if it's just a medication question.

there is ALOT of documentation that occurs at the office after the visits are completed, for instance-the field nurses have "field charts" that have all the patients information including a copy of the care plan, so they have at hand what are active "care plan" issues, as a weekend nurse, I don't have this on my person during the visit, so I complete alot once I get back to the office. Most of our field nurses try to have a four hour period where they catch up on updating care plans, and the like. Also, we turn in our notes every other day to be"exited" by management. that takes alot of time also.

linda

[tewdles, RN]

I visit up to 6 patients daily...all of my case load is currently in private residences (no facility patients).

I do 99% of my documentation at time of visit or directly after.

I document on the POC and problem list at time of visit most of the time.

My visits take from 45-90 minutes normally, roughly 15 min of that is spent on documentation. I am rarely in a home less than 1 hour.

Carrying a case load of 12 patients, I need a couple of hours after IDT every week to wrap up order writing for MD signature and to initiate new orders received at IDT, etc. Mostly, I try to take care of all aspects of care changes while I am visiting in the home...that way the care is not delayed, I do not forget, and the patient and family witness my efforts so they are informed.

[Hospice Nurse LPN, BSN, RN]

I see between 5 to 7 pts. a day, a mixture of private homes and nsg home. The exception is Wednesday when I have 3. This is also my day to QA charts. I do all my charting at bedside (or nsg station). We use paper so a copy of the note must be left in the home. I see my pts on Mon and Thurs or Tues and Frid. Wed is for once weekly pts. I spend between 45 and 90 minutes with each pt at the beginning of the week and 45 to 60 at the end. The only paperwork I EVER do at home is to write a note r/t a pt I've called on the way home to check on or anything r/t calls when I'm on call. Hope this helps.